Mom says new school bus stop request a safety issue

Karen Maynard walks with her daughter, Avery, 7, after being dropped off by a school bus on Lucasville Road on Thursda. Maynard wants to get the bus to stop at a spot with a wider shoulder on the busy stretch of road. (TIM KROCHAK / Staff)

Karen Maynard fears for her children’s safety as they walk to and from their designated school bus stop.

Maynard’s family lives in Kingswood North in the HRM and her three kids have to negotiate a narrow shoulder along a busy thoroughfare to get to their stop on Lucasville Road.

She would be happier if another bus stop could be added at the intersection of Lucasville and Bryanston roads or, better yet, in her community itself.

“(The intersection) would be a good, safe spot,” Maynard said. “There’s kind of like a wide spot where we could park. Even though it’s several hundred metres away, our kids could see the bus stop from our house.

“But instead, we have to go out to Lucasville Road. We tried walking the first day. It’s about a kilometre. But it’s such a narrow strip along the side of the road. It’s like a little path and on the right it drops off quickly . . . It goes down a little embankment, so that’s not safe.”

Maynard said she quickly realized traffic is fast on the route at all times of the day, and she came to the conclusion that there’s no way she would let her kids walk there by themselves.

She decided to drive them to the bus stop and park until the bus came.

“But when we parked on the side of the road we nearly got hit,” Maynard said. “It’s not safe for anybody . . .We have to sit in someone’s laneway and wait for the bus and just run the kids next door.”

Even that short stretch has a very narrow shoulder.

“To me, I can’t even imagine when it’s winter what it’s going to be like,” she said.

The family came to the area from Ontario for Maynard’s husband Jay to work as a pastor. They registered the children on Sept. 12 with Stock Transportation, the contractor that handles school busing for the Halifax Regional School Board. Karen Maynard said that at the time, Stock told her it would probably take about 10 days if they needed to put a new stop in.

It’s now nearly a month into the school term.

“I’m literally holding off a full-time job right now because I’m having to take the kids to and from the bus twice a day,” Maynard said.

She figures she has called Stock at least 25 times and has only spoken to a real person once. Every other time, she has had to leave voice messages. She has gone to the office in person twice, including last Thursday.

“They said they were going to do a stop check for us. They have one guy doing stop checks all over the HRM. I sat for about 40 minutes (at the Stock offices) waiting to talk with the guy who does the stop check. And he kind of rushed past at one point and he said he would hopefully get it done that day. And I haven’t heard back from him since then.”

The Maynards’ oldest son, who is 14, goes to Millwood High School. Their middle son attends Sackville Heights Junior High and their seven-year-old daughter goes to Sackville Heights Elementary. They all wait at the same stop.

There are other children who use the same stop, although for one girl, it’s not a problem.

“One of them actually lives at that house (closest to the stop),” Maynard said. “So for her, it’s safe, she just comes down her lane and waits for the bus. But for anyone else, it’s just not a practical stop.”

Maynard stressed that she doesn’t want the existing bus stop moved because she doesn’t want to endanger that child.

“I’m not protesting the spot in general because for the woman in that house and her daughter, that works. It’s just for the rest of us in the surrounding area, that stop is not good. They need to put another stop in.”

Maynard lost a cousin who was killed by a passing car as she exited a school bus when she was six. She said that’s a big part of her motivation in ensuring all children have a safe commute.

Representatives for Stock Transportation were not immediately available for comment.